Though the Huffman Hargrave Falcons fell in the regional semifinals for the second consecutive year, the Falcons baseball program had much to celebrate this season.
First and foremost, the Falcons captured the district title in a new district, 21-4A, after having moved from 23-4A.
The Falcons went 9-1 in district play, finishing one game ahead of Splendora for the championship. A 7-2 win over Splendora on April 23 proved to be the difference.
Even more impressively, the Falcons won the district after a very slow start to the year. The Falcons entered 21-4A play at 4-7 … and in three of those losses gave up 13, 16 and 14 runs.
But Hargrave turned it around, only losing once in district play to Livingston.
After that loss, they won 13 in a row after that, including playoff games. In the playoffs, the Falcons won three best two of three series to reach the regional semifinals.
In the first series, the Falcons faced off against the Silsbee Tigers, the fourth seed from District 22-4A. Though the series was hard fought, Hargrave emerged victorious in two one-run games, 2-1 and 9-8.
The Falcons faced the Bay City Blackcats, the second seed from 24-4A, in the second round. Once again, the Falcons swept, this time by scores of 10-3 and 2-0.
In the third round, Hargrave met Hardin-Jefferson. In a tough, low-scoring series, the Falcons won 2-1 and 4-0.
However, their luck ran out against the winners of District 18-4A, the Robinson Rockets, who easily beat Hargrave by a cumulative score of 16-2 to end the Falcons season.
The Falcons took home the district MVP from this season with Noah Zamora claiming the honors. Hargrave put five others on the first team all-district, Micah Hakes, Grant O’Neal, Matthew Dorcz and Cam Rhodes. Two others, Ethan Herrera and Cody Oliphant, received second team honors and two more, Eddie Kelly and Justin Shively, received honorable mention.
